The Big Damn Ring
by Hokum pilot
Summary: A Firefly\Halo crossover. Set after BDM and Halo 3. Master Chief and Cortana lands on Alliance planet and must get back to the UNSC, while the united UNSC\Elites fleet searches for Halo installlations.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's note: Well, this is a Firefly\Halo crossover. I've got the idea after noticing multiple similarities in both franchises. So I've decided to try to write a story about it. The biggest problem was that the timelines of Halo and Firefly do not exactly match. So, I decided to somehow go around it. So do not pay much attention to calendar dissimilarities. That will be explained in one of later chapters. This is only a prologue, so no Chief, Cortana of the Serenity crew in this chapter. This one is mostly to introduce one of the focus characters in this story and some OCs. **__**P.S. For those, who interested – pairings are canon for both Firefly (including JxR) and Halo. **__**P.P.S. English is not my native language, so I wouldn't mind a beta reader. Now, onto the story…**_The Big Damn Ring

Prologue

27.09.2559. UNSC Military Calendar. Location: Slipspace.

_Yuri Gagarin_ was a beautiful new ship. Even the Fleet Master Rtas 'Vadum could agree with that. The human race was extremely fast at learning new things, and he wasn't very surprised, when they had build this ship, that not only utilized both UNSC and Covenant technologies, but also carried thousand of small improvements, that made it superior to any combat spaceship that existed in both UNSC and Sangheili fleets. The name, as 'Vadum learned, belonged to first human space pilot. The very class of the ship, "Vostok", was named after his spacecraft. It was a common practice in human culture to name new ships after those, who played important role in the history of the fleet.

'Vadum was torn out of his musings by the ship's navigation officer William Graystone, who called to him.

Capt… I mean, Ship Master! We're closing to supposed Halo location. We're going to exit the Slipspace in ten minutes.

Good. – Rtas nodded. – Give me the internal communications. Attention crew. This is the Ship Master. We're exiting the Slipspace in nine minutes. All hands are to be on level three alert. We don't know if the Brutes have already discovered it. Be prepared to battle.

'Vadum knew that his crew was feeling nervous and a little excited. If the Brutes _are _there, this will be the first big battle in a year that passed from the Battle of Installation 00. The war didn't stop after that battle, of course. The Brutes were severely beaten, but not defeated. The minor engagements between the Covenant Loyalists and the UNSC-Sangheili united forces, combined with the concentration of forces in the Loyalists Sector, led humans and Elites into strengthening their alliance and making it permanent. The new UNSC, which expanded now on both human and Sangheili territories, was still smaller, and probably weaker, than the Covenant, but they had a will to fight, strengthened by their recent victories.

Rtas cast a look on the timer, the human digits showed a little over five minutes to the Slipspace exit moments. The Ship Master leaned forward to the bridge's front window, looking at the blurry pattern of the Slipspace. He muttered something under his breath, then turned to Yuki Ayama, the comms officer.

Tell all other ships to be prepared to battle, we don't know, what awaits us at this Halo. It could be Brutes, preparing to fire it, or even the Flood outbreak.

Agama nodded and proceeded with her orders, while 'Vadum frowned, unconsciously fiddling with his plasma sword handle. The remaining Halo Installations were a constant source of fear to the newly-formed union's High Council. Even if they could only be fired by human hands, no one was willing to risk the Prophets getting the hand on such powerful weapons. So, after the ONI has acquired confirmation of the fact that the Covenant are planning to find the remaining Halos, the Expedition Fleet was quickly formed of the few powerful UNSC ships and sent to mission on finding and securing the remaining Halo rings. Rtas has volunteered into this mission as soon as he learned about it. He was a warrior after all, and, if use human expression, "sitting on his butt bored a hell out of him". So he assumed command of an expedition fleet in order to prevent himself from going insane from boredom.

Weapons primed and standing by, Ship Master. The plasma turret charging cycle will start once we're out of the Slipspace. Same for the MAC guns. The artillery cannons are loaded ready to fire by your word. – Zaga 'Hagamee, one of the _Gagarin_'s weapon officers reported. His partner Vasiliy Gromov only nodded.

These two were picked by 'Vadum himself. Despite being from the different races, they both were weapon maniacs and very fast got along with each other. Young and rather excitable 'Hagamee and silent Gromov were both experts in their areas of weaponry and sometimes managed to create crazy, but extremely effective combat tactics, that utilized _Gagarin_'s both energy and conventional weapons to maximum extent.

'Vadum looked at the timer again. Less than two minutes. He put his hand on the comms again.

Attention to all ships, this is Fleet Master 'Vadum. We're going to exit the Slipspace in one minute. Prepare to assume the combat formation on exit.

Less than a minute later the expedition fleet appeared near the Halo ring. While the sensors did not detect any hostile presence, 'Vadum did not give the order to prepare ground operation until after two hours of throughout scanning.

27.09.2519. Universal Alliance calendar. Location: Londinium Advanced Physics University.

So, this is your new space engine, right? – said one of the Alliance officials, staring at the heavy cylindrical thing with lots of tube, coming from it.

No, no, of course not. – Answered the bespectacled scientist, while shaking his head slightly. – The engine itself is yet to be built. This is merely a prototype, to test the Shaw-Fujikawa effect.

Shaw-Fujikawa? – Asked another official.

Yes, they were the two physicians, who offered a theory. We were lucky, that we were able to find that magazine in old Alliance archive. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any prototype yet.

What does it exactly do? – An old, balding admiral questioned. – Will it make our ships faster?

Faster? Well, not exactly. – The scientist shook his head again. – It rips the normal fabric of time-space and allows the ship to slip into a subspace. While in a subspace, you can travel faster, like the travel, that would normally take two months, will be down to less, than a week.

It is quite amazing. – Another man said. – But wouldn't it make easier for smugglers and pirates to move around, if we can't detect them?

No, not at all. We have also thought about that, we can easily calibrate all Alliance monitoring relays to detect time-space ripping. We've already tested it, using one of Londinium's monitoring relay. I can show you, gentlemen, if you want. – The physician walked to the console and pressed several buttons. The screen stared to glow, and scientist's eyes bulged out. He breathed out one barely audible word. – Impossible…

What do you mean? – The Alliance admiral turned to the physician.

There has been a huge amount of signals… All it one location… Multiple objects… Outside the Alliance territory… - The scientist shook his head slightly, and took off his glasses. – We must prepare or most powerful ships and the best diplomats and send them there. We've just have an alien contact...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1. Mr. John Mendez.

16.05.2559. UNSC Military calendar. Location: Unidentified Planet System.

AIs never actually sleep. They can, of course, go to power down mode, but there still would be a tiny part, that stays awake and alert. Cortana was awoken in the very moment that the remains' of _Forward unto Dawn_ were carried to close proximity of the planet. She used what remained of sensors after drifting few years into space. After malfunctioning sensors sent data to Cortana, her eyes went wide. Not losing a single moment, Cortana started waking procedure of _Dawn_'s other resident…

A man has woken up, he did not move the entire time he was waking to make sure he will have a full control of his body, when facing whoever woke him up.

"Relax, Chief. I know you're awake." – A female voice said.

SPARTAN-117, commonly known as the Master Chief, relaxed slightly at the sound of familiar voice and sat up in cryopod. He forced himself to clear his head and checked up his surroundings. After confirming to himself, that he was still on board of the UNSC spaceship, he turned to Cortana.

"What happened?" – He was pretty sure, that she wouldn't wake him up, until something important happened.

"We're caught into planet's gravitation field. The _Dawn_ is drifting to it, and probably going to crash. I have analyzed the planet. There are highly sophisticated artificial structures and multiple organic signs. I couldn't get more, because _Dawn_'s sensors are good only for junkyard now." – Cortana reported.

"What do you think, we should do?" – Chief stood up and walked to cryopod control console, where Cortana's data chip was inserted.

"I think we should take one of the Longswords or Pelicans from docking bay, and leave _Dawn_, before she crashes onto planet, or before we're blown to bits, by orbital defenses."

"Good. Check on available ships while I go to the armory and pick up whatever we can salvage." – Chief took Cortana's chip out of the console and placed it inside the back of his helmet.

After that, he made his way to weapon stack, picking up one of empty weapon crates and filling it with various weapons and ammunition. Half an hour later a sole Pelican detached itself from _Dawn_ and sped up to the planet.

Once the dropship was closer to the planet, Cortana's head snapped to the window.

"Interesting." – She murmured, more to herself, than to Chief. – "I'm detecting some sort of computer network. Wait a second. Really? Who could have thought? Chief, I believe we've just found Lost Colonists."

"You sure?" – Even Chief, who was not easily surprised, sounded uncertain.

"Yeah, I'm sure. It looks like they landed in one of the nearby systems. This planet is one of the later colonies. I'm scanning more of this "Cortex" net now. It's good, that it connects both civilian and military facilities; I was able to hide us from their early warning relays. Hey, they were having their own civil war not long ago. It appears they did not build paradise, like they intended. Wait a second, what this? Chief, you need to see this."

The SPARTAN looked at the screen, where he saw numerous dead bodies, lying on the streets and in the buildings. Strangely, these bodies did not show any sign of wound on them. Maybe, Chief supposed, it was a gas attack, but even then, the people looked, like they died in the middle of their everyday activities. Then a holographic image of a woman appeared who started to describe the situation.

"Cortana." – Chief said. – "Give me a shortened version of what happened here."

"I'm glad you asked." – The AI smiled slightly. – "After they have landed, the Lost Colonists have continued to settle down on different planets. In this part of Milky Way the star systems are very close to one another, so they could travel quite fast between them. The more planets became populated, the more they wanted independence from the central government. In response the Alliance, they still call themselves that, have started the Unification War. The Independent Planets lost quite quickly, but there are still… _tendencies_ on some planets. So their lead corporation, the "Blue Sun" came with two decisions. One was a special forces training program, slightly similar to that of the SPARTANs, but with some differences."

"What differences?" – Chief inquired.

"Well… they didn't have the biomechanical augmentation, like the SPARTANs had. Instead, they went with pushing human body to its limits, and enhancing psychic abilities. They also lacked advanced monitoring system, like the UNSC had, so they picked their candidates, after they reached teen age."

"That didn't go well, I suppose?"

"Indeed. The SPARTANS were raised as soldiers, used to hardships and dangers. All the SPARTANS _volunteered_ to Dr. Halsey's augmentation project, as you remember. The _Academy_'s "cadets" were no more than lab rats. It led to their desperate attempts to escape and finally to revealing another big secret."

"That recording, right?"

"Yes. The Miranda project. G-23Paxilon Hydrochlorate, or simply the "Pax". The anti-aggression gas. It was added to planet's atmosphere producing plant. It worked. Even better than they expected. The Miranda residents lost all their aggression, and then their will to live. The ultimate pacifying gas, it had completely pacified its victims."

"That sounds logical. So, they completely killed the whole colony then?"

"No, not completely. Some people's organisms had adapted to the environment. They had compensated for the Pax by raising their aggression levels to the point they lost almost all human traits. Think about an army of raging berserking cannibals. These are few, so they travel the space, occasionally attacking settlements of spaceships. They are called Reavers. "

"I figure it would be good idea, not to contact the authorities."

"Yes. I have found the traces of the resistance movement, which was growing since the Miranda Broadcast, as it's called. I cannot pinpoint them now, but I found the man they're bound to contact sooner or later. And lucky you, the guy visit this planet quite often."

"So, I guess, we have a plan, then. Let's work out minor details…"

17.05.2559. UNSC Military calendar. Location: planet Persephone.

The SPARTAN used his helmet's zoom function to observe a spaceport below. It was already dusk and the planet's star was nearing the horizon. Master Chief shifted slightly. He was planning to make a short raid on supply store that was closest to the edge of spaceport's bazaar. He needed to blend in, so he required local clothing and some items, like crates, to store his armor and weapons, without attracting attention to the UNSC markings. Yesterday he and Cortana landed in the small forest nearby and hid the Pelican there. Cortana was scanning local databases all day, to collect useful information for him to pass for local. The man they were waiting for didn't have a schedule for visiting this planet, so they had to wait. And the logical choice was to study the Alliance for potential threats or someone they could turn for help.

The star was set completely after thirty minutes, and Chief started to move silently between the trees, getting close to his target. The small store was not guarded, that was one of the reasons Chief chose it.

As he neared the building, Chief crouched and ran to the nearest wall, then peeked carefully through the window. The owner, a small Asian man was arguing with uniformed figure about something. The window was not thick but the loud music inside the store muffled all sound even from sensitive SPARTAN ears. Finally the uniformed man threw his hands up in frustration and walked out of the store. Chief watched him leave then looked back into the room again to scan the interior. He noticed a trapdoor that probably led to the roof, and the small water tower, situated on that roof. Then some noise drew Chief's attention.

The group of five men was nearing the store, their attitude and appearance just screamed "thugs". They were armed with assorted melee weapons, and some of them also carried gun. No doubt they were here to collect "protection money". Chief frowned this was not good. If someone saw him in his armor it would draw attention for sure. And he needed to be as discreet as possible. So the SPARTAN chose the best course of action he could think of. There was a small unlit area between the thugs and the store. Their path led through that area so Chief was going to use it for his own advantage. He took small cloaking device he picked from Dawn's supplies and switched it on.

Ricky Lee was a rather successful "businessman". He worked for Badger, after all. And without some crazy ex-assassins and extremely mean mercenaries visiting the planet, Badger's men knew no match. Or that was what he thought until he and his men came across this ghostly figure which attacked them from the shadows. It all happened so fast that Ricky was not sure in what he saw. Lucky and Chen were walking in front of him when a hand that looked like it was made of glass grabbed Chen by the collar and threw him into nearby tree. Then a barely visible silhouette moved and smacked Lucky with its open palm. The seemingly light attack sent Lucky sailing through the air. He flew about fifteen meters before he crashed hard into the ground. Billy has tried to pull his gun out but the "ghost" or whatever it was backhanded him. Billy crashed into Joe and both of them were out in less than a second. The "ghost" walked to Ricky who found suddenly that he couldn't force his legs to move. It raised a fist over his head and then all Ricky saw was darkness.

Master Chief stood between five thugs he dispatched. They were all lying unconscious around him. Chief walked past them to the store door intending to get inside before his cloaking worn out. He stepped inside the door and gave a small tap on the owner's head, effectively knocking him out. After that Chief started to pick up assorted items he was going to need soon.

26.05.2559. UNSC Military calendar. Location: Persephone spaceport.

Master Chief was walking though the crowd, a small transportation device he picked in the store was trailing him. Chief was feeling a little uncomfortable without his MJOLNIR armor suit that was currently lying inside one of crates on the transportation device. He listened to Cortana as she was giving him directions to the ship that the man they were waiting for owned. It landed just an hour ago and Chief and Cortana immediately were out of their temporary hideout in one of the spaceport hotels.

When the Chief neared the ship known, as Cortana said, as a Firefly-class transport he saw a young woman with an umbrella relaxing before its open cargo hold.

"Hello." – Chief addressed the woman – "May I see Captain Malcolm Reynolds. My name is John Mendez. I contacted him yesterday about a job".

"Sure, you'll just have to wait for him a little", - the young woman answered, - "Oh, and I'm Kaylee by the way".

_Author's note: So this was the first chapter of the actual story. One of its purposes is to bring those, who somehow didn't get to see the "Serenity" movie, up to speed. The next chapter will concentrate on Serenity crew a little more. _

_For those who didn't read any Halo books – Mendez is last name of Chief Mendez, who was SPARTAN II's training officer and the closest thing to a father they had. So I thought it would be logical for John to use his last name._

_Also, I made some minor fixes to previous chapter._


	3. Chapter 3

25.05.2519. Universal Alliance calendar. Location: Firefly-class transport _Serenity_. On the way to planet Persephone. ETA 22 hours.

"Damn it, you _feng le_ girl! Git off me!" – A rather pissed off man yelled at the tiny young woman, who was sitting on his shoulders and grinning upside-down at him.

"She told him already. She will not tolerate him thinking you can go to the establishment of purchased sexual gratification the very moment we land. She has already warned the stupid _hwoon dan_, that _she_ is his perfect mate." – the girl said in singsong voice, clearly enjoying man's angry expression.

"There's _no way in hell_ we're gonna be mates! You're crazy! And we _hate_ each other, didn't you forgot?!" – the man snarled, but made no attempt, to shake the girl off.

"She hadn't forgot anything, ape-man. But she is also aware, that he doesn't hate her anymore. Neither she hates him. They have made peace long ago, and now he's just afraid to accept the fact she already knows" – the girl slid from him in one extremely graceful move. She turned to him and grinned. – "No amount of sexual encounters with other women will get his mind of her. He's just too dumb to understand that!"

"BOTH OF YOU **SHUT UP**!!!" – Another man, dressed in long brown coat, yelled, entering the mess. – "I'm going to throw you two out of the airlock if you won't stop it. You've been at it _two months_! Two _gorram_ months! I'm sick of your bickering! Get out of here!"

"But, Mal, she started it first…"

"He can't just grasp the simple fact, that…"

Both big man and the girl started talking at the same time.

"I SAID SHUT UP!!!" – The brown-coated man, Mal, hollered. – "I don't friggn' care! Just go away!"

The pair sighed and turned to the exit.

"And he thinks it was much diff'rent for all of us, when he an' 'Nara were doing same thing" – The big man quietly whispered to the girl.

"I heard that, Jayne!" – Mal yelled at the retreating man. – "And don't you dare say anything, River. Or I'll make sure to forget buying that quantum-thingy, you asked for."

The girl, River, cringed slightly at those words, and then glared at Jayne.

"So he's finally noticed the similarities" – The girl huffed. "It would be much easier, if they missed that long and pointless ritual Captain Daddy and Inara went through".

"I still don' get it" - Jayne huffed. "Why'd ya think we'll match. Ya're younger than me, and you're much smarter. Why'd ya keep insisting on it?"

"Silly man", - River laughed, - "This girl is smarter than most people in the 'verce. Whoever she'd choose, she still would be intellectually ahead. And she chooses him because they match. Not many men would like a woman who could beat them in hand-to-hand fight. But he finds it attractive. Finds the girl beautiful even if she's soaked with blood. He accepts both the girl and the weapon. And she knows that he is attracted to her. She is attracted to him too. It will be just a matter of time, before their attraction will grow into love."

Jayne just sighed. There was no point lying to a Reader. The girl smiled at him.

"Now he understands. She knows that there is no love yet, but the time will come. Until that, he can try to just be friends with her. She will appreciate that. Now why don't they go to the helm and enjoy the view of the Black."

River took the big man's hand in hers and started tugging him to the direction of the helm, when the signal of incoming wave sounded. The girl let go of Jayne's hand and ran to the helm to answer it.

The man, who contacted them was not familiar to the crew. He was tall with very pale skin, short-cut brown hair and scarred face.

"Hello" - he said. "My name is John Mendez. Is this_ Serenity_?

"Yes" - River answered. "This is the pilot, River. How can she be of assistance?"

"I would like to speak with your captain"

"Please, wait just a minute" - River turned around. "Captain Daddy, there's a man, who wants to talk to you".

Minute later Mal came up to the helm and addressed the caller.

"I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of _Serenity_. And you are…"

"Mendez. John Mendez. Captain Reynolds, from what I've heard of you, you will not be opposed to transporting some cargo that is not directly approved by the Alliance government."

"Maybe we will, or maybe we won't. That depends on pay." Mal said.

"The pay can be discussed, when we meet in person. I know, you're landing on Persephone tomorrow. I'll visit you in the port, so we can discuss the details."

"Agreed. See you tomorrow then, Mr. Mendez" With that Mal ended the transmission and turned to River. "So, what do you say Lil'tross. Can we trust this guy? Or should we meet him with gunfire?"

"This girl can not read minds through the WAVE transmission, Captain Daddy. But she finds him a little suspicious. His accent and speech are too proper American English speech. But do not worry, if anything happens the girl can take care of him. Now, if you excuse her, the girl will go and bother Jayne a little more."

Mal could only sigh, when his pilot slipped past him. Most amusing part in River's new infatuation with Jayne was to watch Simon's reaction to it. It almost made constant bickering the assassin and the mercenary did bearable. "Almost" being the keyword. Mal had in mind to ask Inara give the pair a consultation, but she was a little nervous these days, since she was still getting used to not being a companion.

After Miranda the life was more or less calm, Mal tried to keep off Alliance radar by taking less jobs in the Core and keeping close to the Rim. But one Inara's old friends, a companion teacher asked them to transfer some items to small training house on Persephone. This Mendez fella was something Mal was not expecting and hr couldn't shake the feeling that something big was going to happen.

_Author's note: Trying my hand in River-speak and relationship description (as well as few JxR clichés)._

_Sorry for the delay._


End file.
